After many recommendations, I just started reading Jim Belcher's ••Deep Church•• Four chapters in, it is not what I expected.
It has been beneficial. The summary, thus far, is that traditionalists and emergents need to find a common ground for conversation; however, there is a middle-ground approach that should be considered by all.
I'm hoping he will better define this middle ground. I guess I will have to keep reading.
Small groups are one of the biggest church fads of the past ten years. Here are 5 Potential problems with church small groups: I stole this list from a recent post at TheResurgence; however, I definitely concur. I think most small groups struggle with one or most of these sins. I have always wondered why the craziest people in a room are the most vocal, why the most sain are quietest, and why I always talk so much. Personally, I think #5 is the greatest sin when it comes to small groups. Also, this list got me thinking about problems I have seen in small groups and church community in general. Nonetheless, I think the biggest problem is that while thinking, the phrase church community even entered (or exited) my brain. Church community is redundant; the church is by its establishment and nature a community. Without community, you do not have a local church. And I don’t mean “community” as North American culture defines community; rather, I am referring to the definition of community that is assumed throughout the New Testament. I think we could all use a little more time reading and rereading the book of Acts. How would Luke have defined community? Or church? Furthermore, are small groups primarily an attempt to recreate one of the defining characteristics of “church” that we have spent decades removing? I’m currently searching for answers to all of these questions1. They become a gossip group.
2. They become a one-man show.
3. They become a place to complain about the church.
4. They become a place for crazy people to take over.
5. They become an end in themselves.
In the afternoon motions at the SBC, someone made a motion that Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA - that his books be banned from Lifeway stores.
(Update as of 9:15 CST, June 23, 2009 - Thankfully, the more outlandish of the following motions did not make it out of committee. All of the "charges" so to speak against Mark Driscoll, the controversial pastor from Seattle who is gaining influence through his popular Acts29 church planting network, were dropped and the motions against him were denied. He was not banned, per se, but there were motions brought up that would have banned his books from Lifeway, the Southern Baptist bookstore, if they had been accepted. I am thankful. We should focus on more important things.)
- Someone else made a motion that Ed Stetzer of Lifeway Research and Alvin Reid and Danny Akin be investigated because of their relationship with Driscoll and the issue of alcohol. Huh?
- Another motion concerns the fact that Pepsi is advertising for Gay and Lesbian issues and the motion desires to keep them neutral in the culture war - if not, they want to boycott Pepsi.
- Another motion was made to remove books by T.D. Jakes, John Hagee, Catholics, and The Shack from Lifeway.
- Yet another motion was made to adopt the American Christian flag to unite us together as believers and a bunch of other stuff in the longest sentence ever uttered - sorry, I couldn't follow. Wow.
- A lady stated that if anyone drinks alcohol or uses an inappropriate word, they cannot be involved with SBC entities.
- Another motion asked for a clarification by the SBC on a distinction between the use of the alcohol, which is a matter of individual conscience and the practice of getting drunk, which is clearly a sin. The man wanted the SBC to try and settle this issue biblically.
- Another motion on the KJV of the Bible.
- Another motion asking that the SBC refrain from the use of secular music in their promotional materials.
In a recent interview, Justin Taylor asked David Dockery (President of Union University and SBC leader) some tough questions regarding the Southern Baptist Convention. Here is one of the questions:
I wonder if I can ask about the issue of membership and attendance within the SBC. You refer in the book to “regenerate church membership” as “a historic and foundational Baptist tenet.” Al Mohler refers to it as one of the three principles that constitute “an irreducible minimum of Baptist identity.” He says that when it’s compromised or denied “whatever is left may call itself Baptist only by asserting a lie.” And yet the numbers I have heard suggest that even though the SBC boasts 16.2 million church members in good standing, only 38% of them attend their church’s primary worship service each week. If what you and Dr. Mohler write is true about how essential this principle is for Baptists, does this not point to something of an identity crisis for the SBC?
One of the reasons that Southern Baptists now need to ask the hard questions about a regenerate church membership--a historic and foundational Baptist tenet--is that people have confused the Christian faith for substitutes. The Christian faith is not mere moralism; it is not faith in faith, some subjective amorphous feeling, nor is it some kind of a self-help theory. The Christian faith is the manifestation of God's truth revealed in His Son and made known to us today in His Word.
We must also sadly acknowledge, as you have noted in your question, that over the course of the past six decades or so, Southern Baptists have allowed our priorities to gradually shift from Christian faithfulness and spiritual maturity to numerical growth and programmatic efficiency . . . .The result is that we developed two categories that are foreign to the New Testament: non-resident members (those who held membership in the church, but have moved away from the meeting place of the church) and inactive members (those who are on the membership rolls who no longer attend the congregation with any sense of regularity).. . . . I think that Southern Baptists must repent of our lack of concern for biblical faithfulness in our concern and care for church members. We need to repent of the way we often allow people to join local churches without stressing the covenantal aspect of membership. We need to repent of the fact that we have largely neglected any aspect of church discipline that would have helped us begin to address some of these important matters.
Matt Chandler's sermon from this past weekend was good. That boy can preach. I know it is a good sermon if I am making excuses for myself by the end of it. Here is a quote from the end of this sermon (probably not exact):"You good husbands, you good fathers, you small group leading, church going, morally righteous men and women, you need to repent . . . . We say I am a better man than my father was, I am a good man to my wife and children, I am a good mother, I am a hard worker, I am involved at church, and Jesus says "REPENT!", that does not save you, that does not justify, and it is just as God mocking as anything out there."
His point is that religion doesn't save anybody, being a good person doesn't save, even obeying the Bible and loving others doesn't save. The work of Christ, his death and resurrection, saves all whom God chooses to regenerate. There is no other way, and no amount of human effort will help our situation (Rom 9:16). We are completely dependant upon God.After all, the best we can offer God is filthy rags(Isa 64:6). So, if we continue to do good, or even if we do great things and help millions of people in the name of Christ, we are just making a mountain of dirty dish towels to lay before the feet of God. Also, we run the risk of being just like the group of good deed doers who are told that their deeds do not equal salvation (Matt 7:22-23).If we want to make an effort, then we don't need to look to any rules or good deeds. Obedience and good deeds are only godly whenever the flow from the Spirit's work in our life as we reflect upon the cross of Christ. We have to continually look to the cross and the person of Jesus. He is our only hope.As Calvin, in his Institutes and Romans Commentary, stated:"Christ has been given to us for righteousness; whosoever obtrudes on God the righteousness of works, attempts to rob him of his office. And hence it appears that whenever men, under the empty pretence of being zealous for righteousness, put confidence in their works, they do in their famous madness carry on war with God himself.""But if we are chosen in him, we shall find no assurance of our election in ourselves, nor even in God the Father, considered alone, abstractly from the Son. Christ, therefore, is the mirror in which we must contemplate our election."
"Don't let your theology get in the way of the Bible . . . . God has ordained that nails get into board by hammers—and that people get saved by prayer and gospel-telling . . . . Jesus LOVED Lazarus, so he let him die—that he might let him see his glory. It is more loving to see Jesus' glory than to live . . . . Prayer is not the work of missions; preaching is. The preached gospel is the frontline spear into unreached hearts."
"We've heard this all before. If anything you have heard at this conference is new to you, then you shouldn't be a pastor (He wasn't disrespecting the other speakers, he was making the point that the evangelical elites continue to gather at conferences and discuss theology or church practice, but nothing ever seems to change) . . . . I'm not anti-pragmatics, but where today are the men whose heart is aflame for God with a holy angst? . . . . Repent of your cold, pragmatic heart that loves ministry and barely loves the King of Glory . . . . How to you cultivate repentance In a church? Preach the cross . . . . If you contextualize the gospel so much that everyone likes it, you're not preaching the gospel."
"You will become like Jesus as you worship Jesus . . . . You're an idolater--that's the problem (and then he just turned and walked off the stage)"
"People's hearts have always been hard; it's always taken a miracle; 'There's no such thing as nearly dead.' . . . . Over time religion seeks to choke out the gospel among God's people . . . . The religious emphasize secondary things. 'Error is often truth out of proportion' (DA Carson) . . . . We need bold, courageous leadership; and if they fire you, plant a church."
"(Driscoll reading Acts 2) 'See, Calvinism is very old.' . . . . We preach Jesus. We are a band with one song--Jesus--and we sing it until we see him . . . . "Evangelistic sermons" are a mistake; if a sermon is about Jesus, it's good for everyone . . . . if you don't have unbelievers coming to your church, it may be because 1) you don't talk about Jesus or 2) you have Sunday school . . . . Don't be so creative you become a heretic; I would rather be faithful than cool."
"The best and only worthiness that we can present to God is to offer him our vileness and unworthiness, that he may make us worthy of his mercy; to despari in ourselves, that we may find consolation in him; to humble ourselves, that we may be exalted by him; to accuse oursleves, that we may be justified by him."
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